Disney on Ice: Dare to dream bigger?

We were lucky enough to win two tickets to see Disney On Ice: Dare to Dream (and I paid for two more so, you know, the children could come). I’ve wanted to see Disney On Ice for a while – I figured that’s the kind of spectacle Disney does brilliantly. We almost went last year, but the show was called Disney On Ice: Princesses & Heroes, so I said hell no.

Disney is good at dreaming, I thought. Dare to Dream sounds like it’ll make me cry, I thought. The boys were excited…

Joe [right] said, “I wish I was Cinderella…” Can’t tell by looking at him, can you?The show started with Mickey & Minnie – I still get a shiver of glee when I see Mickey even though I know, as the boys never tire of pointing out, that “it’s just a man in a suit” (it feels sacrilegious even typing that) – and then a bit of The Princess & the Frog. It was brilliantly staged, of course, but it didn’t really thrill me. Next was Snow White – again, it looked wonderful, but I sat there thinking ‘this is a ridiculous story’. She bit the apple, the dwarves put her in the glass box, the prince turned up to kiss her, I said to Harry, “She’d be long dead by now, she’s been in a box!” Harry said, “Would she be a zombie?”

Then it was Cinderella time. Hmm. There was an interval. I sat feeling slightly grumpy. Dare to Dream, eh? But only if you dream of being a princess, apparently. After the interval was the end of Cinderella and, for me, the first properly exciting bit of skating when the soldiers skated up to and through each other (er, you’d have to see it). I think they did it twice and I went “Ooh!” both times. Could’ve just watched them doing that for the rest of the show really, it was amazing.

The lantern bit gets me every time.

Harry and I had predicted the last bit would be Tangled (me with a “Yay!” and Harry with an “Ugh!” – I think he only pretends not to like it because I love it, he’s at that stage…) and we were right. And it was awesome. I loved everything about it, particularly Flynn Rider (hubba) and, of course, the lanterns (and the horse! On ice!). But the most incredible part was when they flew above the ice, holding onto the golden ribbons that were meant to represent Rapunzel’s hair. (I couldn’t see any harnesses, it really looked like they were just wrapping the ribbons around themselves.) When it finished, I said, “That. Was. Amazing.” Even David was impressed (“I must be getting soft.”).

We left after that to make the train and so missed the finale, but I didn’t mind – I figured it would have been hard to improve on Tangled.

I was left feeling a bit disheartened though. Yes, I know Disney Princesses are ridiculously popular. I know Disney is a business and a show like this is about making money. But can we at least pretend it’s about magic? Basically, if they’re going to Dare to Dream, I’d like them to dream a bit bigger and better.